What is Spam?

I’ve been on Twitter for about two weeks now and have built up a small-but-respectable following. Today, I sent a direct message (not a public Tweet) to all of my followers. This was the message:

Only 2 more days to save 25% -- Realtor Marketing Strategies Ebook! www.cmrealestatemarketing.com/real-estate-marketing-strategies

I got a direct message back from one guy who said, “Thanks for the DM spam, I appreciate it.”

It caught me off guard because getting out there and marketing my services is way outside of my comfort zone anyway, and the thought of being labeled a “spammer” really makes my blood run cold. Had I become the dreaded s-word?

When I sat down to think about it, I realized that the definition of spam is so ambiguous it’s confusing at best, useless at worst. What is to one person annoying spam is to another a useful piece of information about a product or service. Spam is often defined as “unsolicited e-mail” but that’s a horribly incomplete definition that’s open to all sorts of interpretation. Technically, anytime anybody sends me an e-mail I didn’t ask them to send, it’s unsolicited. But, clearly, it’s not spam.

So I went hunting online for a more complete definition and found it at a site called www.spamhaus.org. They define spam as an e-mail that meets both of these criteria: 1) the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients; AND 2) the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit, and still-revocable permission for it to be sent. In other words, spam is e-mail that is unsolicited and bulk.

So, the $64,000 question: was my Tweet spam? I can see arguments on both sides. On one hand, I didn’t personalize every single message to the recipient (though I did target it to real estate agents). On the other hand, the people I sent the message to had chosen to follow me and can “un-follow” me at any time. I don’t know. . . what do you think?

Interesting tidbit: Apparently junk e-mail was termed spam by the University of Southern California “because it has many of the same characteristics as the lunchmeat Spam:

• Nobody wants it or ever asks for it.
  
• No one ever eats it; it is the first item to be pushed to the side when eating the entree.
  
• Sometimes it is actually tasty, like 1% of junk mail that is really useful to some people.”

Clearly, I’m biased because I’m a marketer -- marketing puts dinner on the table and shoes on my kids’ feet. In other words, I may define spam more liberally than someone else. So, what’s your take?

And, lest you leave this post wondering, “What the heck did that have to do with real estate marketing,” here’s what: if you ever send e-mail to prospective clients (leads) you should be on the up-and-up regarding spam. Next week I’ll blog about the CAN-SPAM Act – what you don’t know can hurt you. SHAMELESS PLUG WARNING: (Or to learn all about CAN-SPAM right now, check out Chapter 12 in the e-book How to Win: Marketing Strategies for Successful – and Aspiring – Real Estate Agents.)

Don’t forget: Tomorrow is the first edition of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. E-mail me your submissions today so I have something to critique! (molly@cmrealestatemarketing.com)

Molly Castelazo

Castelazo Marketing Ltd.

July 30, 2009

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